An old acquaintance will take his place on the away bench at the Weser Stadium on Saturday, 24.09.2005 at 3:30pm. When Werder take on Bayer 04 Leverkusen, it will be the third and last game that interim trainer Rüdi Völler will be in charge of team selection for the Rhein land club.
With two wins in Duisburg (3:1) and against Cologne (2:1), Völler has turned the fortunes of Leverkusen, who had made a wobbly start to the season, guiding back into a more respectable place in the table, where they feel they belong. Currently Bayer have ten points and are in fifth place, three points behind Werder. Völler intends to clear his place on the bench to return to his Director of Football roll after the game with a myimum on points after three games on his old hunting ground, Bremen, where he played between 1982 and 1987, playing 137 Bundesliga games, scoring 97 goals. Hot favourite at the moment to fill the trainer position is Matthias Sammer.
Bayer without Juan and Schneider
Rüdi Völler will have to do without the services of two of his most important players at the Weser Stadium. German international Bernd Schneider picked up a red card against Cologne while Brazilian international Juan pulled a muscle. Other exclusions are Jens Nowotny (training defecit), Jacek Krzynowek (knee injury), Paul Freier (calf tear) and Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker (rehab after foot break).
Werder coach Thomas Schaaf dosen't see an advantage for his team in the upheavel of a change of trainer or the injury list for his side: "A change on the bench gives the dissatisfied players a chance to prove themselves again, we don't quite know what to expect. After the last two performances I don't expect to see an insecure team, rather a team who know what they have to do." Schaaf is equally sure that his side have learned from their experience in Mönchengladbach: "We know that we can't afford to sit back. Aside from that, the team have now a new self confidence and security which was still their after a poor half in Gladbach", the 44 year old insured.
35,000 tickets already sold
The Green-Whites are still without Nelson Valdez (muscle tear), Petri Pasanen (concussion) and Ümit Davala (hip problem), the latter did serve a personal training session with physio Stefan Wolters on Thursday with the hope of soon returning to the team.
Until now some 35,000 tickets have changed hands leaving for both home as awy fans only 3,500 cards available.